298 LETTERS FROM SAMOA
General, and the English and American Land Commissioners, as well as a few others, making quite sixty in all. We met on the verandah of the old house, and sat on mats ; though there was a box, covered with tapa> in the centre, on which I and a few others took refuge when we really could not sit on the floor any longer. The feast was spread on the corresponding verandah of the new part of the house; it is not desirable to have native feasts inside the hall, as it takes so long to get rid of the smell of pig ! Seumano, the chief of Apia, who was one of our guests, had brought with him three young ladies of his family, who were put in charge of the kava; and of course the serving of this opened the ceremony, being handed only to the chiefs and the gentlemen visitors ; there was no time to include the ladies, Louis read aloud his speech of thanks to the chiefs, ending up with some friendly advice to make the best of things ; and after Lloyd had given it in Samoan, speeches were made by Seumano, and by a ' talking-man' on behalf of the chiefs. Then we all trooped off to the feast, which consisted as usual of pigs, salt-beef, tinned salmon, puddings of coconut cream baked in taw-leaves, quantities of hard biscuit, and eighty pineapples. In the words of the old ditty—
'They did very well without fork or knife'— and Lou declares he saw one chief put a newly